Damon Salvatore Fanfic I
by Daria Finica
Summary: A younger, darker, more romantic, more tormented Damon Salvatore. He now uses another name, Leo. And the story is quite different. You can read more on "Daria Finica . com" . Click on the cover if you want to read more.


Leo slept for many hours on the couch. When he woke up eventually, he saw it was almost dusk and Andrew has already left to the bar. The silence around him was almost annoying, but he felt truly safe for the first time in months.

From Andrew's apartment he could see people working on cranes in a site nearby, but the noise they made couldn't reach him. During the hours he had slept, he didn't recall to have had any nightmare. And he felt very good about it. Far away, he could see the ocean with his green-greyish waves, fighting agitated against the sky.

He felt the sudden need to open the window. The cold air from outside chilled him and turned his cheeks into a faint pink. He decided to get out of the apartment and to have a small walk.

The world outside was too beautiful and he wouldn't let himself watch it with sadness in his eyes anymore. He took a shower, feeling the warm water dripping across his face and his forehead. He enjoyed the hot water like a christening which should have awoken him more to life. He felt the water should make him stronger, fuller of life than before.

He borrowed some of Andrew's clothes and he left quickly the apartment, walking steadily toward the ocean. He didn't care the other people would look at him with unease or that the walk was too long in the cold air of the evening. He wanted only to feel more alive, to enjoy the long walk and feel the life and the rebirth of the nature pulsating around with every second.

It was the first sunny day after the heavy rain has tormented the city for days. He was walking quickly, almost running, with a faint smile on his face and a vicious spark in his eyes he was unaware of.

All of his life he has been experiencing drastic changes of mood. Changing so suddenly his emotions seemed almost normal to him. He always had an impulsive nature and he would always enjoy extreme emotions. He loved with all his heart and he would hate with all his heart. He could never stop himself in the middle and he knew that. Of course, he wished the others could accept him just the way he was, without asking too many questions.

The beach was quiet. Only the sea birds were flying agitated and the warm wind made him forget of the rainy days for a moment. He started again to try reading the emotions on the people's faces, as he always loved doing.

Noisy young people were walking all around him enjoying the faint sun; a couple of old people were holding hands in a gesture which promised to be almost eternal, young women were walking with a feline grace, watching him from time to time. His fair face and his well-built tall body couldn't be ignored for too long.

Without even knowing it, Leo had always possessed a mysterious attraction to him. His beautiful pale and melancholic face made him look innocent, but his full and well-defined lips were like those of an angel from one of Lippi's Renaissance paintings. Leo was walking now slowly toward the ocean, breathing the salty air, when suddenly something bumped into him violently.

He almost lost his balance when he saw it was a young woman with a black and shiny long hair kept in a high ponytail. She has hidden her eyes under a pair of black sunglasses. Leo wrapped his hand around her waist, fearing she would fall.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention," he said.

"Nor did I. Don't worry," she answered almost with caution, her voice sounding mysteriously and faint. Her heart was beating fast, almost like she was trying to concentrate too much not to scream or to run away from him.

He wasn't able to see her eyes from behind the sunglasses, but somehow he realized she was watching him intensely. Her face became pale and her lips turned almost purple, yet she wouldn't make any gesture to release herself from his arms. After a long moment, she pressed her tiny hands on his chest, trying to push him away. The touching of her hands made him feel dizzy for a second, but she was now watching him intrigued, without saying a word.

"You are..." she said at least with a coarse voice and she stopped breathing for a short moment. She had felt something strange, something which attracted her attention in an instant. A heart beating faster and stronger than any ordinary man's and the dizziness... something that made her heart throb with pain.

She was intrigued she didn't have the courage to push him away, intrigued he was able to hold her in his arms with an almost inhuman force. She knew that particular feeling and she hadn't felt it for quit a long time now, for too long time maybe.

"You are..." she said again, forgetting maybe she had said the same thing before. Without a trace of fear now, she touched his face tenderly like she had known him for years, without caring the other people were watching them. A few moments later, she managed to push him away effortlessly and left quickly, without allowing him even the smallest explanation of her strange behavior.

"You freak!" she said to him with a small smile on her face, while she was getting away.

"Hmm... freak!" he answered back with a sudden rage, not understanding she was only joking. He didn't know why he felt the sudden need to react this way. He didn't understand why, for a moment, he wouldn't let her go either. He felt a strange dizziness which made his head ache while holding her in his arms.

Leo wished she had never bumped into him like that. She didn't even allowed him to talk to her and all that he had now was a faint trace of her perfume. Not near enough. What a waste of time...

He didn't want to walk on the beach anymore. The blue sky and the happy people around him had something annoying to them and he didn't want anything else more than to get to Andrew's apartment as soon as possible and try to sleep.

He locked the door carefully and he laid on the couch without making a noise. He was still thinking about the girl he had met on the beach, about her breathing and the strong strange perfume he had felt for a short moment.

Leo felt he couldn't stay awake anymore. The sleep came to him like a dark monster, like something nightmarish he wasn't able to avoid no matter how hard he tried to. This time he had the same nightmare which tormented him almost every night.

He was running deep in the night, he was running desperately without even knowing why and his fear was growing deeper and deeper with every second.

He was in a forest, losing himself more and more in the dark, with his palms and arms bruised from the spines of the bushes, his bruises getting more painful with every second. He didn't dare to look back. He could hear clearly shouts behind, but he knew for certain he had to run as fast as he could. They were always one step behind him and he felt every moment now his followers will catch him.

This nightmare tormented every single one of his nights and each time it seemed more real, scarier. He seemed to have entered another world. Beings without a face were following him relentlessly through the forest, in the dark and, for a moment, he thought he had seen the girl from the beach far away in front of him.

He tried to scream but he couldn't make any sound. He saw her big eyes, her black hair and her pale face. She was looking at him intensely, the same way she did on the beach and undefined emotions were crossing her face.

She looked like she had to tell him something. The faceless beings were coming closer and closer. Leo felt again her perfume distinctly and a soft breath on his neck.

A sharp pain crossed his whole body and he felt drops of blood on his neck and his arm, more and more of them. The young woman was holding him with all her strength and didn't seem to want to let him free. He was fighting against her with all his strength, but it was all for nothing. He simply wasn't able to get free.

He felt the same strange dizziness he was so used to feel during his nightmares. Everything seemed so real. The hallucination was so vivid he simply couldn't get out of it. He tried to get awake, feeling the sudden fear that he might never be able to do it again.

It was as if the world he had entered for a few seconds was consuming all his energy slowly, was getting him closer to death with every moment.

Leo woke up in the middle of the forest, his whole body covered in cold drops of sweat. It was night and nothing was breaking the silence around. When he finally managed to open his eyes, he saw she was there, smiling.

On her lower lip, she had a small drop of blood gleaming faintly in the night. She took him in her arms and kissed him suddenly, so passionately he felt himself lost for a second in her deep and tender kiss.

He was feeling protected in that cold and strange embrace. The taste of blood invaded his mouth with violence, making him almost lose his breath. He liked the strong and unusual taste of it. He realized with amazement he wanted more...

Again, he woke up with his face covered in sweat and with a pulsating pain in his head. He felt the need to touch his lips. He was still feeling on his tongue the taste of the blood and her hot breath.

She has abandoned him again, even though she has done it only in a dream. He didn't even know what time it was. Outside, the sky was turning darker.

Leo was feeling like every single drop of energy has left him in an instant. Now that he was thinking about it, the whole incident on the beach had been very strange.

When he had touched the young woman, everything around had become strangely warm for an almost unbearable moment. It was like he has lost his mind for a second and now she appeared even in his nightmares.

He knew he had always possessed the ability of sensing easily other people's emotions and sometimes he could swear that he can even hear their thoughts. Most of the times, he feared and loathed his strange capacity of hearing thoughts and he had never mentioned it or talked about it with anyone.

Yet on the beach, he couldn't feel anything. It was like her mind was completely closed to him, like it was somewhere beyond his reach. With her, it was like he was touching a lifeless cold object.

His friendship with Andrew came easily maybe because of this so special ability he had. Instinctually, from the first second he had met him, he felt the man is in pain and he feels very lonely.

That was the very reason he dared to open so much to Andrew, to tell him almost his entire life story, after so many years living like an outcast, always trying to hide from everyone.

In his apartment everything was the same as he recalled when he was first forced to visit Andrew: spotless clean and arranged with military rigor. Leo felt safer in there, although he couldn't realize exactly why.

He had a faint smile on his lips, without knowing why. He enjoyed a short shower and then wrapped in a thick towel and poured himself a big glass of cold milk.

It was long past midnight, but he still couldn't make himself to go home. He was sitting in the same corner of the couch and he was almost on the point of breaking into tears, thinking at how selfish everyone around seemed with all their fighting for meaningless ideas.

Leo let himself slowly overwhelmed by emotions he could hardly control. In an instant, he found himself crying nervously, without realizing the time to put down all his walls and to simply let his soul cry had come at last.

When he was tormented by such dreadful episodes of deep sadness, he felt his bad mood controlled his whole being and he won't be able to let go of his emotions very easily.

The same thing happened to him when he was overwhelmed with fury. That very moment he would just want to break everything around without being able to control himself, without the slightest trace of guilt or care. It was the same in his rare moments of happiness. He was laughing with all his heart and he would cry with all his soul, almost like realizing vividly that the moment he was living was his last on the earth.

Andrew found him crying on the couch, with his hands wrapped around his knees, like trying to protect himself from something. The glass of milk was lying on the table almost untouched for hours.

"What happened to you? You have forgotten to eat again!" Andrew was watching him with the eyes of a father, but Leo couldn't get the strength to say anything. He didn't want to see him and he didn't want to talk to him about what he felt.

"I'm just a little sad. I can't really talk right now..." he managed to say with a tired voice.

Then, without even saying a word, he took his coat and he left, leaving the door open behind him.

"I want to take a little walk. Don't wait for me."

Leo left the apartment quickly, not giving him any explanations, while Andrew was staring at him with big eyes.

Outside, the sky already began to get lighter. A warm wind was tangling his hair lightly and the fresh air made him feel better. He was feeling again in his nostrils the smell of the salt water, even though the ocean was almost too far away.

The streets were empty and the loneliness only made him feel more tormented with anxiety. His demons were still following him. He couldn't get the young woman he had met on the beach out of his mind.

There was something about her that made him fear, he realized. There was something almost unnatural about her.

Leo felt the need to stop and look carefully around him. For just a moment, he had felt the same strange dizziness he would always fear so much during his nightmares. It was the same particular fear he couldn't let go. And also, it was the strange feeling a pair of eyes was watching him intensely from somewhere close.

The sudden feeling wasn't just one of his hallucinations. In front of him he saw the young woman he couldn't stop thinking about lately. She was just staring at him, without trying to avert her eyes, and she had an almost vicious smile on her lips. Leo went directly to her.

"What are you doing here alone at night? Aren't you afraid? Do you remember me?"

She didn't even care to answer. Like in his nightmare, she only started kissing him passionately. Suddenly, he sensed the powerful taste of the blood in his mouth and her smell invaded his nostrils. He wanted to push her away, to run away from there as fast as he could, but he knew he wouldn't stand a chance against her. She was too strong. And the strange dizziness consumed all of his energy.

Leo felt the blood invading his mouth, more and more. It was hers and he couldn't understand how he knew that. He began to feel it flowing through his veins like liquid fire, making him dizzier with every second.

Everything was so weird, yet so appealing. He didn't want her stop anymore. He heard her words faintly:

"Don't make me wait too long for you! You will have to take one of the most important decisions you ever had to."

For a second, he couldn't remember where he was. His vision became dark and the world started to spin around him. He woke up on his back, dizzy and so confused he couldn't say whether he was feeling fear or ecstasy... or both.

He was hearing her stiletto heels making noise far away in the night and after that everything went blank. Leo awoke on a hospital bed, in a room where the warmth was almost unbearable and the white of the walls was hurting his eyes.

He couldn't remember anything, not even the time when he got to the hospital or when someone has found him. The last hours simply vanished out of his memory and he felt exhausted.

Only the taste of the blood in his mouth didn't disappear. He realized he should leave the hospital as quick as he could. He tried to get up, but he felt too weak to do it.

Leo was feeling so bad he soon passed out, with the unpleasant smell of the hospital substances in his nostrils. When he woke up at last, he realized his senses where overwhelmed by the colors around him and the different smells in there. He felt sick and dizzier than ever.

Leo soon realized he could hear the voices of the doctors in the closest room. They were talking about him agitated. They couldn't stabilize his body temperature and the beats of his heart.

The registered values were bigger than normal and his body wouldn't react to any of the treatments they have already administered. Leo knew he had to get out of there quickly, before the doctors would become even more suspicious about him.

He put his clothes on chaotically, still dizzy from the effort and he jumped out of the window, from the first floor, with feline movements.

He used a moment to watch carefully the people around and the next second he got lost in the crowd without looking back. Leo had the strange feeling everyone was looking at him, like he would walk in front of them naked of all the secrets he was desperately trying to hide.

He felt something sharp in his chest pocket. It was a small piece of paper. The girl from the beach had left him a phone number and when he touched the thin paper he felt dizzy again. He recognized the same sweet confusion he had felt the time he was holding her in his arms.


End file.
